Women call for economic empowerment

By John Agok

In a bid to boost women’s economic capacity, the Chairperson of South Sudan Women Bloc and other members on Monday called for implementation of women enterprise funds as stipulated in the 2018 peace accord.  

The over twenty women made a call during a one day workshop aimed at strengthening their voices in good governance and democracy as entailed in article 1.4.4 of the Revitalized Agreement’s  (R-ARCSS) Chapter one.

The session also focused on women’s economic empowerment reflected in Chapter IV, article 4.15 .15 of the same revitalized deal. 

Amer Manyok Deng, the Women’s Bloc Chair urged the government and partners to support women’s projects meant to build economic capacity.

The women’s leader said the appeal would help the group to participate in economic development of the country.

“I am appealing to our government and international partners to help financially in supporting and enhancing women’s skills in business management. We need their capacities to be built in economic development”, she cited.

Amer appreciated the country for having continued to implement the 35 percent women affirmative action.

She however urged the government to exert more efforts in implementing the revitalized peace deal.

“I really thanked the President and other parties to the agreement in honoring the 35% women representation as stipulated in the R-ARCSS”, Amer stated.

Regina Ossa Lullo, the Director General at the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social welfare commended the forum for raising women’s intervention that need immediate response from both government and relevant partners.

Ms. Lullo said that there was a need to support women’s capacity through economic empowerment.

She affirmed her support through the Gender’s Ministry to the women group in order to move forward.

“We in the Ministry will double our efforts to support any activity that can enhance women empowerment both economically and politically”, she said.

Earlier this year, South Sudan Youth Organization Coalition (SSYOC), a loose collection of over 20 local organizations had repeatedly appealed to the government to implement women’s enterprise funds entailed in the peace accord.

The 2018 revitalized peace agreement tasks the government to establish women’s and youth’s enterprise funds.